More grim figures released by the US Commerce Department yesterday provide further confirmation of the severity of the economic contraction in the US and globally. The US economy shrank at an annualised rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008—its worst result since 1982. The decline followed a contraction of 0.5 percent in the third quarter—the first successive quarterly GDP declines since 1990-91

What we are now seeing is the beginning of an inevitable downward adjustment in American living standards to conform with our actual place in the world. We are headed to a recovery that will not feel like a recovery at all. Eventually, productive capacity will be restored, as lowered US wages make it again profitable for some things to be made here at home again, but like people in the 1930s looking back at the Roaring 20s of yore, we are going to look back at the last two decades as some kind of dream

The opinion expressed recently by one of the senior judges in the Supreme Court of India, shows that the judiciary too has started to feel the pressure imposed by politicians who feed the rhetoric on terror as a means to garner votes and a society that feels terrorised in the absence of security. Such thoughts render the concept of fair trial invalid. The fact that such a statement came from top echelons of our judiciary means that list of worries of India's civil society is a growing list

There are many stories. Each account -- each murdered individual, each wounded person, each burned-out and broken house, each shattered window, trashed kitchen, strewn item of clothing, bedroom turned upside down, bullet and shelling hole in walls, offensive Israeli army graffiti -- is important

In historical perspective, nothing proves the Israeli action and the Palestinian reaction more than the very existence of Hamas. While founding the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was the reaction of the Palestinian refugees in exile to the Israeli action of forcing them out of their homeland in 1948, the founding of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza was the Palestinian reaction to the Israeli military expansion in 1967, which led to the occupation of the rest of historic Palestine

Israel may have won in Gaza, but the centrist Kedima party, as well as Labor, have shot themselves in the foot. The other big loser is the people of Israel, intoxicated with victory. But the greatest loser in this war ofcourse is the Palestinian people

Here is the solution that the overwhelming majority of Americans should demand: A law should be immediately passed that imposes a new special federal income tax of 99 percent on all income in excess of $500,000 annually for single taxpayers and $1 million for couples, starting for 2008 income. Call it a greed tax. Call it justice. Call it getting even for too many years of uncontrolled greed that has given the nation nothing but economic injustice and inequality, and given capitalism a very bad name. Call it a sensible way to raise federal revenues to help offset the cancerous national debt

So what might the New World Order show us? Simply, absolute control of land, sea, space, cyberspace, resources and people by the same elite now grappling with messiness of such as sovereign nations and human rights. They smell the goal line—those who profit from all dimensions of war and destruction; who profit from mangling the biosphere with fossil fuels; who profit from cashing out any hope of a non-reptilian future for humanity; who profit on extinction...those to whom profit, power and control are what life is about. Humanity slashed and burned down to under a billion slaves lorded over by a crust of reptilian supremacy....

While draconian laws are no solution to the problem, it is likely they create and intensify the problem. The mantra of ‘tighten the security’ has not yielded any success in preventing it. The core point is to see that the concerned civic society makes its stand clear, that terrorism’s roots lie in injustice on one hand and US policies on the other. We need to raise our voices against injustice and US hegemony both to see that over a period of time the terror menace is eliminated by and by

The two largest pension funds in California, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), have lost billions of dollars in value. Hundreds of thousands of retiring state employees and teachers now face the stark choice of accepting much reduced pension checks or working past their retirement age

If only more around the world would take notice of the French example, stop their daily routine, and take action against neoliberal government bail-outs giving billions in public funds to the prime capitalist offenders, we would actually be able to construct a new and better world in the ruins of unjust and imperialist capitalist one

The Netherlands based Indian blogger Chyetanya Kunte had to retract comments made on his/her blog http://ckunte.com in the post titled 'Shoddy journalism' against the NDTV Ltd and Barkha Dutt and tender an unconditional apology, presumably because of a threatening legal memo

Baghdad today, on the eve of provincial elections, feels like it has emerged from several years of horrendous violence, but do not be misled. Every Iraqi I’ve spoken with feels it is tenuous, the still-fragile lull too young to trust

Obama’s election has aroused optimism in the Muslim world that he would reverse the Bush administration policies that created negative image of America and fomented anti-American feelings throughout the world. President Obama said in his Al-Arabiya interview that ultimately, people are going to judge me not by my words but by my actions and my administration's actions. Let us hope that his policies will bring peace to all

I continued touring farms in the area where the smell of death filled the air. Surviving chickens roamed around surrounded by thousands of their dead kin. It was an overwhelming scene leaving one to ask only: why?

How can President Obama even think about fighting wars half way around the world while California cannot pay its bills, while Americans are being turned out of their homes, while, as Business Week reports, retirees will work throughout their retirement (which assumes that there will be jobs), while careers are being destroyed and stores and factories shuttered

The body count is still rising. For months on end, marked by bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions, and layoffs, the economic meltdown has taken a heavy toll on Americans. In response, a range of extreme acts including suicide, self-inflicted injury, murder, and arson have hit the local news. By October 2008, an analysis of press reports nationwide indicated that an epidemic of tragedies spurred by the financial crisis had already spread from Pasadena, California, to Taunton, Massachusetts, from Roseville, Minnesota, to Ocala, Florida

Within days of taking power, the Obama administration has made clear that it will escalate the war to subjugate the Afghan people, intensify US military strikes on targets inside Pakistan and continue the occupation of Iraq indefinitely. What is being prepared is a brutal escalation of US military violence in Afghanistan and a widening of the conflagration in the region

Those who counted on Obama to bring a just peace to the Middle East must’ve had their hearts broken watching the man charging against Hamas’ terror, as thousands of Gazans were killed and wounded, including 430 children in the matter of three weeks as a result of Israel’s barbarous attacks, using mostly American weapons (and full, unqualified US backing.)

As everyone scrambles for a solution to the crises in the nation’s economy, Wes Jackson suggests we look to nature’s economy for some of the answers. With everyone focused on a stimulus package in the short term, he counsels that we pay more attention to the soil over the long haul

Child marriages continue to be a fairly widespread social evil in Madhya Pradesh, despite a law banning it. The DLHS-3 recorded that 40.5% of boys are married below the age of 21 years and 29.2% of girls aged below 18 were married. The scenario of rural parts in the state is nastiest where about 58.5% women aged 20-24 years got married by the time they are 18 years old

The Sri Lankan military offensive aimed at destroying the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has produced a humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the fighting. While journalists are barred from the front lines, reports are filtering out of hundreds of civilian deaths, with many more injured and in need of urgent medical help

Tamilnet services reported on 26 Jan that 300 civilians among 250000 IDPs waiting for safety in the government declared safe zones or secure zone in Mullaitivu were killed when the Sri-Lankan armed forces bombed and shelled the area. Several hundreds were bleeding to death in the last 24 hours. This death toll was ten times more than the horrific death count for a day on the 22rd January military assault on Mullaitivu

As the news rolls in, we who wait patiently, and hope Obama will eventually be an exception to the frightful imperialism of corporate governance in spite of knowing that it was the backing of the banks and corporations that allowed for his election success, we must, especially if we want to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, help him by reacting loudly to aberrations, if that is what these following notated points be

The “palpable joy & energy of hopefulness” throughout the United States of America on Nov 4th and Jan 20th, with “millions of people feeling inspired and joyful” was one of the greatest deceptions of recent decades — every bit as deceptive as a religious cult, yet even more treacherous. Such sentiment was never “real” but manufactured. The “energy” involved in that deception could not possibly have “made this world a better place”. On the contrary, it took the history of global delusion to its highest level yet

Obama's first steps constitute a "U-turn" and I hope that they translate into a march towards consistent observance of the highest norms of international conduct. America's example is the fuel that sustains international moral order and once again the burden of civilization can become America's badge of honor

Elections were held, voter turnout was exceptional, and the government is now formed. But the big question remained unanswered why did people vote this time. The large scale turnout surprised the pro-freedom leadership and pro-Indian parties as well as the state of Pakistan, and India

Although no one can predict the future, it appears that nothing will be the same in the post-Gaza world. Be hopeful, be positive, but be prepared for the worst since the world is entering uncharted territory. Welcome to the post-Gaza world

For 10 years under Chavez, Bolivarianism has flourished, and the greater its success the harsher it's critics. America flounders in corruption, economic chaos and decline. Venezuela's star is rising. One man made it possible. Imagine a future America like Venezuela today. Imagine a caring, not a predatory nation. Imagine a leader in Washington like Chavez. Imagine a groundswell enough to get one

In Bolivia's history, January 25 was historic but getting there violent and uncertain. On July 2, 2006, a new Constituent Assembly was elected. On August 6, it was sworn in, but for six months remained snagged in procedural debates and achieved little. By late December 2007, a new constitution was passed, but the country was as polarized as ever. It still is. On one side, indigenous, popular rights. On the other, elitist interests wanting business as usual

But because of the deeply embedded and institutionalized nature of Washington's imperial machine, it doesn't matter much which party controls the White House and Congress. To fight these developments, we need to continue to grow grassroots media projects and support independent journalists, build long-term solidarity with Latin American social movements and build social movements in the United States, fight free trade and do our part to shed light upon the structural violence threatening Latin America's promising future — which is directly tied to ours

It is time for the United States to step down from its fake throne and to stop acting as the Master over all the rest of the billions of people on the earth who are treated like slaves with no rights and no voice. Goodbye to the United States Empire and good morning to a new world of responsibility and equality

On Monday, employers in the US and internationally announced tens of thousands of layoffs in an indication that the economic crisis is accelerating and spreading throughout the American and world economy—and far outpacing governmental measures to respond

In Gaza, Palestinians have once again been blamed for their own deaths. The British made a similar argument 151 years ago when they killed thousands of Indian civilians -- 1,200 in a single village -- in response to the largest anti-colonial uprising of the 19th century. If Israel truly desires peace with the Palestinians and safety for its citizens, it should look back to one of the greatest, and misunderstood, independence movements in history

This onslaught is a holocaust since the many tons of phosphorous bombs, dropped on Gaza cities, had burnt civilians to the bones, burnt their homes and buildings, and burnt their fields and crops. This is the holocaust that the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai, had threatened Palestinians

People in Swat - once called the 'paradise' on earth or Switzerland of Pakistan - are living in tense times. The Pakistani Taliban have stoked fear in parts of the valley, and their control is growing. They have demolished schools and bombed bridges; political workers are assassinated, journalists are tortured, girls are forbidden from going to school. Even dead bodies have been exhumed from their graves and put on gallows. The power of the government has shrunk to a limited area in the district

While the Sri Lankan army has announced the capture of Mullaitivu, the last bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the plight of more than 250,000 civilians caught in the fighting continues to be as grim as that of civilians in Gaza, say those involved in humanitarian work

Three weeks of Israeli terror caused about 1400 deaths, over 5500 injured (many seriously), vast destruction throughout Gaza, and Physicians for Human Rights warning that large numbers of wounded may die because hospitals are overloaded and lack basic supplies. Yet Palestinians endure. Their spirit is unbowed and unbroken. Hamas is more popular than ever, and world outrage sustains them

The BBC's unwillingness to support the Disasters Emergency Committee Gaza humanitarian appeal has prompted widespread demonstrations, with many protesters gathering outside the BBC's headquarters in London to vent their outrage at the decision. What the decision underlines is the sanitisation of news coming from the modern day big broadcast news organisations. News is just news. Free from the ideological shackles of what some would refer to as basic morality. Fox News would call this 'fair and balanced.'

Waiting a year to close a single prison is nothing to celebrate. Transferring those illegally detained humans is not change anyone can believe in. Public promises about not torturing have been heard before and even if we could trust such dubious assurances, why are we so goddamned appreciative when a US president merely declares his theoretical intention to think about adhering to fundamental international law?

Carolyn Baker challenges the notions of the recent article in the New Yorker regarding those who are consciously preparing to live in a post-petroleum, energy depleted, economically depressed world. She also takes the author to task for reporting a preponderance of male responses to the challenge and essentially omitting female voices, noting that the female perspective on the transition is pivotal

For sure the Indian Constitution is regarded as one of the best in the world. It provides a certain safety and sovereignty to every section of the society in India. And the day that coincides with the day that saw it being enforced in the country deserves respect and attention. But the question that is crying for an answer is why despite our constitution being so powerful we fail to see the desired results in sixty long years. Does the problem lay with those who are responsible for aptly implementing the constitution? The answer to this question when floated to the common Indians unfortunately results in affirmative

Despite being world's largest democracy, it is a rare scene in Indian politics when youths are being promoted from grass-root level. But to strengthen democracy, political parties need to include the marginalized youth of the country. Any leader promoting his or her progeny must also be shunned. Because Dynasty politics is the bane of India

Missiles fired from unmanned Predator drones struck two targets inside Pakistan Friday morning, killing at least 18 people. As is always the case with such exercises in remote-controlled murder, US officials claimed they were targeting Al Qaeda, although even US media accounts admitted that the majority of those killed were local residents

Our leaders are now boasting about their part in the Gaza War, in which unbridled military force was unleashed intentionally against a civilian population, men, women and children, with the declared aim of “creating deterrence”. In the era that began last Tuesday, such expressions can only arouse shudders

Isn't 60 years of suffering and survival enough to convince Olmert that the will of the Palestinians cannot be broken? How many heaps of wreckage and mutilated bodies will be enough to convince the prime minister that those who fight for their freedom will either be free or will die trying?

The attack on Gaza cannot remain an isolated incident that slowly fades into history. This attack has been etched into the psyche of an embittered Arab world. Sympathy for the Palestinians has been extended worldwide. These phenomena have dictated a new look at the Middle East contestants and a new approach to resolving the conflict

As Israeli bombardments continue, the US continues to block UN resolutions, and Palestinian casualties exceed a thousand with 5 times as many wounded, passive acts of participation seem more and more superfluous

By choice, we have ceased to find joy in small day to day things. Life has become more of a goal than just life itself. We have consciously chosen to run this race. We have consciously chosen to not live life in depth, enjoy life completely. And till the time we do not chose to stop, the race will go on. In this race, there is no finish line

Pakistan at the moment needs a strong leader who is a symbol of national unity and can champion the cause of human rights for the oppressed communities and minorities. The leadership vacuum left behind by Benazir Bhutto is still very much there. However, if the current government continues along the path that it currently seems to be treading upon, then we have every reason to believe that the problems and challenges that our country today faces, both, internal aand external, would further aggravate with the passage of time

Media persons in Assam and Northeast India have to perform their deities under tremendous work load but with low return in terms of salary and other legitimate facilities. The trouble torn region has witnessed a media boom in the last decade, but the media persons including the journalists continued to be the victim of exploitation by their respective employers. Many times, the low patronage from the management put the journalists in most vulnerable situation

A swelling global population, changing diets and mankind's expanding "water footprint" could be bringing an end to the era of cheap water. The warnings, in an annual report by the Pacific Institute in California, come as ecologists have begun adopting the term "peak ecological water" - the point where, like the concept of "peak oil", the world has to confront a natural limit on something once considered virtually infinite

In WW2 Churchill deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death, continued to foster Muslim-Hindu antipathy that led to the horrors of Indian Partition and persuaded his War Cabinet on racist Partition of Palestine. Yet the holocaust-complicit Anglo media, academic and politician Establishment is still in denial

After the overthrow of communist governments in Eastern Europe, capitalism was paraded as the indomitable system that brings prosperity and democracy, the system that would prevail unto the end of history. The present economic crisis, however, has convinced even some prominent free-marketeers that something is gravely amiss. Truth be told, capitalism has yet to come to terms with several historical forces that cause it endless trouble: democracy, prosperity, and capitalism itself, the very entities that capitalist rulers claim to be fostering

If anything, the last three weeks, and previous 18 months, have proved that the Palestinians can never be broken by either starvation, economic strangulation or brutal attack. European leaders have only one option: to recognize the outcome of a democratic process they had called for and supported

As the tide of emotions recedes,is the world going to regret that in reality there was nothing so entertaining about this sad story of a hardworking poor sailor who had become the captain of a sinking ship and was obliged to steer it ashore. Will compulsions of President Obama might outweigh promises of Senator Obama?

The president signed a draft executive order to close Guantanamo within a year, and to immediately halt any further trials of prisoners. The order reads in strict compliance with the Geneva Convention, and acknowledges all prisoners' entitlement to rights under Habeas Corpus. I'm compelled to want to believe that it's not just another mirage

The bombing of hospitals, schools, homes and even whole villages is becoming a common sight in the Tamil territories. Sadly, the life of civilians is at its cheapest. So cheap, that even democratic Governments in the West seem to think, in the context of the so-called 'War on terror' human life plays only a minor roll. The demarcation line between a "Terrorist" and a "Civilian" is blurred

We don't know what the world holds for us in the Obama years, but it's not likely to be pretty and some of what's heading our way may not be in any of the familiar playbooks by which we've been operating for the past half century-plus. We don't yet know if whole countries, even whole continents, may collapse in the economic, or environmental, rubble of our twenty-first century moment, or what that would actually mean

The Emperor may be new – image, articulation and character – but the clothes are sewn from the same silky, rhetorical themes of nobility, prosperity and patriotism which have been so deceptively and manipulatively spewed forth at previous inaugurations. National security, jobs, production, economy, education, leadership – Amerika's greatness and its God-proclaimed responsibility to lead the world is just as farcically magnanimous as it has been for so many generations

Even as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th US president, Wall Street markets fell sharply in response to further indications of the accelerating crisis of American and world capitalism. The stock market decline, triggered by reports of massive losses suffered by US and European banks, was the worst ever inauguration day sell-off

It was pathetic. When I asked Mr Ban if he would consider a UN war crimes tribunal in Gaza, he said this would not be for him to "determine". But only a few journalists bothered to listen to him and his officials were quickly folding up the UN flag on the table. About time too. Bring back the League of Nations. All is forgiven

The Palestinians, students of a universal humanism in which they consider themselves equal to everyone else, keep failing Israel's racial lessons and tests. What the Palestinians ultimately insist on is that Israel must be taught that it does not have the right to defend its racial supremacy and that the Palestinians have the right to defend their universal humanity against Israel's racist oppression. Will Israel and its allies ever learn that lesson? Israeli history tells us that as students of racial supremacy, Zionists have always failed the test of universal humanism

For Palestinians, the Nakba "Catastrophe" is their "Holocaust" six-month slaughter and displacement before and after the May 1948 establishment of Israel. In December 1947, Jews in Palestine numbered 600,000 compared to 1.3 million Palestinians. David Ben-Gurion ordered them removed and for "Every attack....to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion."

Because of the constant killing and massacres of Palestinians, the latest instant of mass slaughter is occurring as I write this, the state of Israel has no moral right to exists. Israel needs to be replaced with a democratic egalitarian state which recognizes equal rights for all its citizens

For years, loans from World Bank have been used to fund India's infrastructural projects to include road and dam construction and watershed management. But despite the enormous expenditure on every project, there is a growing body of evidence and disappointment in the outcome of these projects and its ultimate impact on India’s community and environment. A recent exposure of one such project in Tamil Nadu adds to the evidence

Ian Sample's "Billions face food shortages, study warns" , based on findings by researchers at Washington and Stanford Universities, points out some of the progressively difficult conditions that will likely lead to widespread starvation in times ahead. Its conclusions fit well with ones posed in Paul Chefurka's "World Energy and Population Trends to 2100" and "Peak Oil, Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Population, the Elephant in the Room".

The dehumanization and demonization of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims has escalated to the point where Israel can with full self- righteousness bomb their homes, places of worship, schools, universities, factories, fishing boats, police stations -- in short everything that sustains civilized and orderly life -- and claim it is conducting a war against terrorism. Yet paradoxically, it is Israel as a Zionist state, not Palestine or the Palestinian people, that cannot survive this attempted genocide

The most recent MOU signed by Dr. Condi and Ms. Livne, one of the most notorious Israeli war criminals, stipulates that the American government helps in preventing weapons smuggling into Gaza. However, unfortunately this MOU does not stipulate that the American government stops sending weapons of mass destruction to Israel

The U.S. all too frequent blanket and blind support of Israel both diplomatically and in unrestricted arms sales indicates tacit approval and support for anything Israel does. We should voice our concern for decency and compassion for those caught in the crossfire and for an end to the state of siege Israel has put upon the Palestinians. Siege only causes resentment, uncalled for and unnecessary suffering, develops hatreds and prolongs conflicts

From a historical perspective, it's almost eerie to watch the events in Gaza unfold today as they closely mirror the patterns, motives, and propaganda that led to Israel's 1982 "Operation Peace for Galilee" invasion of southern Lebanon. A careful student of history and the ongoing crisis will find that all rhetoric and politics aside, Israel's motivations and aims haven't fundamentally changed over the past several decades

When the Mumbai tragedy took place everybody was quick to condemn the attackers and to call for an immediate action against them and had sympathy with the Indian people but, It is very sad that a captive population of Palestine is being killed by air as well as ground onslaughts by Israelis and there is no condemnation of Israeli terrorism that is on an even larger-scale than that perpetrated in Mumbai

Despite the collaboration of the Egyptian regime in choking and weakening Hamas government, and playing the Israeli proxy mediator role rather than supporting their Arab brothers against the Israeli genocide, Mubarak’s regime was abandoned and left exposed as a traitor, and was not given the chance to exonerate itself. Such is the fate of all so-called moderate Arab leaders. They are to be used and dumped when their usefulness expires

American life floods us with one particular very tried and true untruth: Everything our federal government tells us, either officially, or through mainstream corporate media. So, a reliable working definition of truth here could be: "Exactly what government does not tell". Certainly they tell occasional superficial truths, but those always have tendrils merging into the massive and nearby body of deceit

Every single world problem, if we look closely enough springs from our personal thoughts. The roots of all these evils sprout in our very own minds. Thus, the question is not What is Wrong with the World but What Is Wrong With Each One Of Us?

A tense truce presently exists in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire Saturday night and Hamas’ announcement of a one-week ceasefire twelve hours later. An undisclosed number of Israeli troops still remain in Gaza however, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made clear there was no commitment, nor any timetable for a withdrawal. Nor is there any Israeli commitment to opening Gaza’s borders and ending the devastating blockade

How cynical are Israeli politicians that they have chosen to sacrifice the lives of innocent Gazan families to seek political advantage in the elections that will happen on 10 February. Not only has the Israeli regime sent its military machine to commit genocide in Gaza, it has also endangered the lives of its own citizens and soldiers. This, without even once trying to negotiate in good faith with the elected government of the Palestinian people

"If only my three daughters will be the last victims of this horrible conflict," wept Dr. Ezzadin Abu Al-Aish, a Palestinian gynaecologist recovering from his wounds in Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer hospital. An Israeli tank shell killed three of his nine children aged 20, 15 and 14 as well as a 14-year-old niece in their home in the Jebaliya refugee camp Saturday. Israel says its forces were responding to sniper fire

Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by officials since Israel launched its attack on 27 December, it bears no basis to reality. Rather, this is a war against the Palestinians of Gaza, and less directly those in the West Bank, designed primarily to crush their political rights and their hopes of statehood

Mr. Obama American Muslims pose a question to you, If somebody was starving your daughters, kidnapping your friends and constantly launching air raids on the town that you lived in, wouldn't you do everything in your power to stop it and don't the Palestinian people also have this right?

We need to send a clear message about our nation to the rest of the world: the American public is aware and fiscally-responsible. We believe in fairness, justice, peace, and equality. We do not support our money being used to destroy peoples’ lives

This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after nearly three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world’s media by?

The world watched in horror as the drama unfolded. But Gaza fought back, withstood, resisted, and the language once again was altered. Arabs are now speaking of ‘victory’, hailing the ‘resistance’, singing the praise of the Palestinians in Gaza

And yet, in the face of so much desecration, this community has remained intact. The social solidarity and support between people is inspiring, and the steadfastness of Gaza continues to humble and inspire all those who witness it. Their level of sacrifice demands our collective response and recognition that demonstrations are not enough. Gaza, Palestine and its people continue to live, breathe, resist and remain intact and this refusal to be broken is a call and challenge to us all

Gaza is our mirror, it is the shattering mirror of a shattering world system of Empire and domination; it is the magic mirror into which we can look to see the truth of our cultural situation and the forces that drive our psyches, the painful mirror that can lead us to grief and transformation, in which we can see what is revealed, and what, and who, must change, and how. What is happening in Gaza is a Revelation. That is why we cannot tear our eyes – or our hearts – away

Life in Occupied Gaza. No end of conflict is in sight. Mass slaughter continues unabated. World leaders are silent on halting it. Blame the victims. Back aggression, but people globally say otherwise: In solidarity, we're all Gazans. We're all Palestinians

All know that Rajapakasha regime will need to enter into a dialogue with the Tamils without any preconditions. Precondition is only a pretext for war. All the Internally Displaced Tamils have to be re-settled. Bombed hospitals, schools etc will need to be reconstructed. Tamils and Sinhalas will need to negotiate how best they could live harmoniously in their own homelands

As the defence minister, Ehud Barak, admitted early on in the offensive the army had been planning the attack for at least six months. In fact, indications are that the invasion’s blueprint was drawn up much earlier, probably 18 months ago

In this war, as in any modern war, propaganda plays a major role. Almost all the Western media initially repeated the official Israeli propaganda line. They almost entirely ignored the Palestinian side of the story, not to mention the daily demonstrations of the Israeli peace camp. The rationale of the Israeli government ("The state must defend its citizens against the Qassam rockets") has been accepted as the whole truth. The view from the other side, that the Qassams are a retaliation for the siege that starves the one and a half million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, was not mentioned at all

Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian? We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza

Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the tiny enclave only fuelling speculation

The claims that Israel is using white phosphorus against the Palestinians in Gaza are a crime against humanity. Imagine using a scattergun on a crowd to take out one criminal that may or may not be hiding amongst them. What would the reaction be if our government was to utilize this approach? The Israelis are in effect, using this method against innocent women and children

Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts

In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed

Remember Gaza - immortalized as one of history's terror-bombing victims. World outrage demands an end to this and the prosecution of its perpetrators. We stand together in solidarity. Today we're all Gazans. We're all Palestinians

The real battle is in the jungles and it is here the "Vietnam" lesson is going to be learnt, yet again. The tragedy is, civilians will continue to die in their thousands. The other real battle is in the realm of politics. What are the root causes of the Tamil conflict? How will the Government handle the business of eradicating the causes

It is time the Indian urbanites stops discriminating against farmers and the rural populace. It is time to understand that every Indian has an equal right to a decent standard of living and a share of the developments and growth taking place in the country

Governments negotiate a cease-fire. Rumors buzz of conspiracies. The US President-elect is forever silent. Parents search beneath the collapsed walls for what remains of their children. Shattered concrete, random arms and legs, broken glass, tossed together in a bloody hodge-podge. But, in my mind, I see them whole, their little bodies swiftly being swept up into Paradise and I call out to them, “Run!”

The burden of responsibility for opposing Israel's atrocities in the Gaza Strip therefore rests with the emergency mobilisations, global public outrage and the enormous groundswell of popular solidarity with Gaza. Although peaceful protests by civil society may seem ineffectual next to the shameless inaction of the international community, it is the surest step towards laying the groundwork for a genuinely democratic and peaceful solution to the Gaza crisis

What has Israel won exactly, aside from the haunting images of Palestinian youngsters in UN schools, homes and hospitals, mutilated, some silent and others screaming? This is no victory, but a brief illusion of one. As for the long-term repercussions, that is a whole new story. Israeli bombs over Lebanon in 1982 gave rise to Hezbollah, and its war of 2006 turned a small, resisting militant movement into a major powerbroker that will certainly help shape the future of Lebanon. Israel is now doing the same in Gaza. A victory, indeed

While Israel has sought to conceal the atrocities that it is carrying out against Gaza’s civilian population, reports of aid workers and testimony of survivors have provided a searing picture of the carnage unleashed by its military assault

The devastating Israeli firepower, unleashed largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during two weeks of military siege, is the product of advanced US military technology.The US weapons systems used by the Israelis -- including F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles and a wide array of munitions -- have been provided by Washington mostly as outright military grants

Osama Musa Suliman al-Nabahin, 37, married with two children, is a treasurer in the Palestinian Authority and a resident of Johr al-Dik, in Deir al-Balah district. His testimony was given to B'Tselem's Musa Abu Hashhash by telephone on 4 January 2009

The American print and TV media has never been very good. These days it is horrible. If a person intends to be informed, he must turn to foreign news broadcasts, to Internet sites, to foreign newspapers available on the Internet, or to alternative newspapers that are springing up in various cities. A person who sits in front of Murdoch’s Fox “News” or CNN or who reads the New York Times is simply being brainwashed with propaganda

Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave’s civilian population

The US Senate on Thursday passed a non-binding resolution promoted by the influential Israeli lobby AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee), effectively endorsing Israel’s war on Gaza. The resolution, entitled “A resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in Israel’s defense against terrorism in the Gaza Strip” recognizes “the right of Israel to defend itself against attacks from Gaza” and reaffirms “the United States’ strong support for Israel in its battle with Hamas”

Within days of the Mumbai Terror Attacks, producers rushed to register films on that horrific event. The country had not even begun to pick up life together after this shock, and Bollywood was already planning of block busters to be spun out of this tragedy

The gap between the alternate reality that the BBC inhabits and the reality on the ground witnessed and relayed by independent media is so great today that it has compelled John Pilger to write: 'For every BBC voice that strains to equate occupier with occupied, thief with victim, for every swarm of emails from the fanatics of Zion to those who invert the lies and describe the Israeli state's commitment to the destruction of Palestine, the truth is more powerful now than ever.'

Consumed by coverage of the Nov. 4 presidential election, U.S. mainstream media ignored a key Israeli military attack on a Hamas target that some Palestinians claim marked the effective end of the ceasefire between the two sides and set the stage for the current round of bloodletting

Israel, for 60 years, has used security considerations as a reason for warfare and has not gained ‘security.’ Either Israel is using the wrong tactics to achieve security or security is a cover for other objectives

Professor Dershowitz in seeking to exempt Israel from the requirements of International Law has consistently argued that since Israel has not signed the Rome Statute and has not submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, that Israel is not bound by the Rome Statute's International Law as noted below. He errs in his interpretation of the Rules of International Law and is quite mistaken that the provisions of the Rome Statute do not apply to Israel

May the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton have the courage to bang some heads on both sides and provide a future of opportunity and a future without the threat of more blood and death to the young Israelis and Palestinians. They deserve to live in peace

The plight of the civilians caught in the conflict is indeed very pathetic. The Sri Lankan government is announcing that the people are fleeing from the conflict zone in to the Government controlled areas. But certain charitable organisations on the ground, working among the Internally Displaced People with their meagre resources are saying that this is simply not the ground reality

Malegaon was wonderfully free from communalism and its tension in the halcyon days after the Independence. Bigotry against the minority Muslim community appeared on the scene thanks to the growth of aggressive Hindutva. In later times this would become the defining characteristic of communalism in and around the city. The eighties was the turbulent decade of Indian social life

If the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) were left to its colonial techniques, Kashmiris may eventually benefit from Gilbert's discovery and Edison's invention-- the electricity and the shining bulb--in the form of megawatts of "power blockade". According to reports in the media, CERC has pulled the plug on the Kashmir Power Development Department's request for more electricity for Kashmir

Rs 2.5 crore was stolen recently from the headquarters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is India's main opposition party. A question needs to be pointedly asked if the party cannot manage even its own coffers properly, then how can it manage the coffers of the nation if it comes to power ? But as of now such chances look remote

The Israeli army shelled an UNRWA [the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees] school that was inhabited by 600 civilians who had to evacuate their homes in northern Gaza, killing six people. The attacks caused damage to two hospitals and destroyed the Civil Defence station in Rafah. Between 2:30pm yesterday and 1pm today, Israeli attacks killed 96 people. At least 22 were children and seven were women

It is a gross misunderstanding of what is unfolding in Gaza to believe Israel’s motives are capricious. The politicians and generals have been preparing for this attack for many months, possibly years -- a fact alone that suggests they have bigger objectives than commonly assumed

In the silence of this room where one candle safely burns, I think of Gaza and the flames that won’t die down, the cries that go on burning night after deafening night, the blood that pumps from an endless wound, the tears that will smolder for years to come in hearts reduced to blackened pits. And I see the planes with devout precision delivering sermons of bloody hell. The wounded, the dying fall like ashes from a single flame mere bombs can’t blow out. It is a flame born of a people’s struggle for the right to exist on their own ancestral land, free of the oppressor’s crushing claim

The Middle East Quartet includes the US, EU, Russia and the UN. It was formed in 2002 to seek "comprehensive security reform," mediate the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process," address Occupied Palestine's deepening humanitarian crisis, among other stated objectives. On September 25, 21 aid and human rights organizations issued a damning report on the Quartet's performance

During his visit to Israel on July 2008, President-elect Barack Obama told the media: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters [Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7] sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” However, on the slaughter of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, Obama has failed to condemn Israel and seems to espouse sickening contradictions

On the 10th day of its aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has seriously escalated its military operations, targeting mostly civilian targets, particularly homes. Air strikes and artillery shells hit tens of homes. IOF also targeted medical facilities and ambulances. A Civil Defense team was hit as it tried to fight a fire following the bombardment of a clinic. So far, 89 children And 30 women are killed in the attack

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen

The Israeli military is reportedly using napalm-like white phosphorus shells in its all-out attack on Gaza. The phosphorus in the smoke-emitting shells causes agonizing, unquenchable burns, sometimes searing flesh right down to the bone

Looking at a picture taken in Gaza, I saw a young Palestinian boy holding a tiny stone in his fragile hand aiming at a monstrous Israeli tank in front of him; my mind suddenly went blank. I closed my eyes. A question started pondering my mind desensitized by western media. ‘Where is God?’

Israel's largely "American-made" military includes "thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and 'bunker buster' missiles" as well as massive fleets of U.S. F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters—all crucial to Israel's murderous air strikes. Additionally, Israel has been dropping an array of American "GBU-39 small diameter bombs" on Gaza—bombs that "contain uranium oxide and [are known to leave] behind radioactive contamination."

To understand the frustration often felt in the Arab world over US media coverage, one only needs to imagine the same front page had the situation been reversed. If an Israeli woman had lost five daughters in a Palestinian attack, would The Washington Post run an equally sized photograph of a relatively unharmed Palestinian woman, who was merely distraught over Israeli missile fire?

The regular attacks, combined with a blockade which deprived Palestinians in Gaza of food, fuel, potable water, medicines and educational materials, was the slow-motion shoah which had been taking place up to December 27. The full-scale bombing which began on that date is surely the ‘bigger shoah’ promised by Vilnai, and, according to Israeli reports, it was being planned as long back as February

In his January 3, 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, Israel's Policy Is Perfectly 'Proportionate, Professor Dershowitz, defends Israel's operation "Molton Lead " and while doing so consistently misstates the Facts and the Law

Perhaps Israel's leaders would do well to remember that terrorism has not only a physical but also a psychological infrastructure, an infrastructure that they are building even as they destroy tunnels and rocket launching platforms; that desperate people will resort to desperate measures, that suffering breeds hatred and hatred breeds revenge

Americans must realize that our media is not telling the entire truth, not only about Israel and Gaza, but just about every international event. The media actually twists the truth to correlate with the State Department on foreign affairs. This gives the illusion that America is always on God’s side, and supports the “good fight”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States supports any country that can further their mindless wars against Islam and Arabs. When will this stop?

Republican partisans grumble John McCain never had a chance, victimized by big money, hostile media, a Democratic year, and “outside” forces beyond his control. Does this array explain the shocking loss of GOP strongholds North Carolina, Iowa and Indiana? Or why this certain loser trailed Barack Obama by two points at the second Presidential Debate?

What needed is the destruction of current system, a revolution, not within the boundaries of one or few nation-states, but a global revolution, not just to uproot this system but to uproot the attitudes and fixation towards knowledge, ideas and initiatives

We can envisage a truly parallel system of business -- one that deliberately competes with the existing system, growing daily from the inside out, even as the "shell" of the old system crumbles all around us. As Mahatma Ghandi and others have suggested, let's "build a new society in the shell of the old"

Ramtanu Maitra argues that the huge money flowing through the opium trade in Afghanistan is financing the terrorist activities in South Asia and this terror network may have played a part in Mumbai terror attacks

While the commercial benefits of damming rivers has been talked about a lot, the in-stream and off stream monetary and non-monetary benefits and advantages of flowing rivers has not been assessed so far. Does basin approach mean undertaking that assessment?

Israel is engaged in direct conflict with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, after its long-expected ground invasion began Saturday. Verifiable accounts of the fighting are scarce, because Israel continues to refuse access to foreign journalists even after its Supreme Court issued a ruling that allowed a "limited number" into Gaza

This war is a writing on the wall: Israel is missing the historic chance of making peace with secular Arab nationalism. Tomorrow, It may be faced with a uniformly fundamentalist Arab world, Hamas multiplied by a thousand

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising will mark both the latest chapter in Palestinian resistance to colonialism and the latest Israeli colonial brutality in a region whose peoples will never accept the legitimacy of a racist European colonial settlement in their midst

I found that my neighbors are dealing very patiently with what is happening right now. They don't have any place to go and are staying close to their homes, expecting that the worse has yet to come. However, they are saying that they will remain steadfast in their homeland and neighborhood and homes, even if Israel destroys Gaza completely

Live Free or Die. The motto of the State of New Hampshire, probably one that few Americans are familiar with, has never rung truer. And how similar it is to the feeling of ordinary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip now, trying merely to survive day to day, longing for a life free of Israeli occupation and terror

Samira Tawfiq Said Balousha, 36, married with nine children, is a homemaker and a resident of Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Her testimony was given to B'Tselem's Muhammad Sabah by telephone on 30 December 2008

Suppose Hamas terrorists were hiding out in Tel Aviv (or Los Angeles, or London, for that matter -- the exercise is equally illuminating applied to the U.S. and or any other "civilized" Western state). Would an assault of the sort we have seen against Gaza even be contemplated?

Baseless presuppositions and propaganda about Palestinian rejectionism and Israel's moral [scrupulousness] aside, Israel is savagely massacring hundreds of Palestinians with American weaponry for a reason as old as dirt, the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak, to guarantee that there will be no peace that recognizes Palestinian rights as equal to Jewish rights

Because the rights that European and North American nations demand for Jews do not seem to extend to Palestinians. Or perhaps more accurately, in a perversion of the Golden Rule, the western world looks the other way when the nation of Israel does unto others as others have done unto them

Around the beginning of the twenty-first century, there began a clash of two gigantic forces: overpopulation and oil depletion. The event went unnoticed by all but a few people, but it was quite real. As a result of that clash, the number of human beings on Earth must one day decline in order to match the decline in oil production

A recent news from America wasn’t discussed in Indian media as much as several others emanating from there. An in-office Governor, Rod Blagojevich from the state of Illinois was arrested and put into jail on Dec 9 this year – one of the charges was scheming to sell a vacant senate seat. The Governor is still in jail. Let us contrast this with what is happening here at home

As more than 2,400 Palestinians have been killed or injured -- the majority civilians -- since Israel began its savage bombardment of Gaza on 27 December, Obama has maintained his silence. "There is only one president at a time," his spokesmen tell the media. This convenient excuse has not applied, say, to Obama's detailed interventions on the economy, or his condemnation of the "coordinated attacks on innocent civilians" in Mumbai in November

The least you can do in your remaining days at the White House is adopt a modest profile in courage, and vigorously demand and secure a ceasefire and a solidly based truce. Then your successor, President-elect Obama can inherit something more than the usual self-censoring Washington puppet show that eschews a proper focus on the national interests of the United States

Unidentified Palestinians are being victimized for the sake of unidentified objectives. Israel claims it is targeting Hamas, while in fact, it is targeting whoever and whatever in Gaza. For the past seven days, Israeli air raids completely devastated scores of civilian ministerial buildings, municipal premises, charities, universities, schools, homes and mosques

Every half an hour a news bulletin on the radio and television describes the victims of Gaza as terrorists and Israel's massive killings of them as an act of self-defense. Israel presents itself to its own people as the righteous victim that defends itself against a great evil. The academic world is recruited to explain how demonic and monstrous is the Palestinian struggle, if it is led by Hamas

Because of the unconditional support of the entire political class in the US, from the White House to Congress, including both Parties, incoming and outgoing elected officials and all the principle print and electronic mass media, the Israeli Government feels no compunction in publicly proclaiming a detailed and graphic account of its policy of mass extermination of the population of Gaza

This is the winner of our discontent, Barack Obama, and he is supposed to end the US attack on Iraq and its people and withdraw our invading forces and end the occupation of that country. Keeping Robert Gates, a Bush loyalist to the core, as his war secretary is not a promising sign. In this article I will outline what Gates thinks about the US mission in the world and the role of the U.S. military

Unlike other crises that are well known, the food crisis is unfamiliar to many people. The economic crisis, the war in Iraq, the cost of health care and education are all crises covered in the media. Although the food crisis is something that deserves to be one of the top priorities globally, it is not as exposed as it should be

Every once in awhile a seemingly ordinary film entrances an audience beyond expectations. The Indian film Slumdog Millionaire appealed to Americans with its "rags to riches" story of a deprived youth from the slums of Mumbai, India, who used pluck, luck and an astonishing memory of incidents in his life to win 20 million rupees in a quiz program

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who threw his boots, is rightly being hailed as a hero by Iraqis and many others. What US administration wanted to believe that it will get bouquets, was a make believe to invade. The boot it is getting now is what these invasions deserve

Israel apparently hopes to persuade the Hamas leadership, as it did Arafat for a while, that its best interests are served by co-operating with Israel. The message is: forget about your popular mandate to resist the occupation and concentrate instead on remaining in power with our help

Regardless of the outcome of the mass murder continuing in Gaza, the region won’t be the same as it was prior to December 27. Israel and the United States have presented Palestinians and Arabs with more evidence that the language of power is the only language which the US and Israel understand; this will, no doubt, move the region towards more militarization and revenge

The lifeblood of the Palestinian National Movement flows through the streets of Gaza today. Every drop that falls waters the soil of vengeance, bitterness and hatred not only in Palestine but across the Middle East and much of the world. We do have a choice over whether or not this should continue. Now is the time to make it

A friend forwarded to me the most original greeting for the New Year: "I wish in 2009 a horrible year for all war criminals and their accomplices." I could not but think of whether some United Nations officials can be counted among such "accomplices."

I am an American-Israeli Jewish woman of 60 living now in an Arab town in Israel and working for Jewish-Palestinian-Arab-Israeli reconciliation. I have two friends in Gaza and I will tell you how we came to be acquainted

I can understand the angst that Palestinians’ feel when innocents are killed by an enemy that doesn’t care. Let that be the message that comes out of Gaza. Try a winning strategy of non-violence. That takes more courage than to give into anger and present the Israelis with an excuse to commit genocide

It is hard to think of a world, especially in the West, more dehumanized and cruel. If no one is able - even at Christmas - to feel pity for the victims or to "do unto others and you would be done by" or of being on the side of the dispossessed and oppressed, the most probable outcome is that others in the Middle East will defend the weak, protect the persecuted and punish the aggressor with the means at their disposal

The Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2006 passed by the Indian Parliament recently allows the government to intercept messages from mobile phones, computers and other communication devices to investigate any offence. Not just cognizable offence, the kind you witnessed in Mumbai 26/11, but any offence. Any email you send, any message you text are now open to the prying eyes of the government. So are the contents of your computer you surfed in the privacy of your home